La Familia’s game-winning BLOB play was one that Jon Hood remembers running at Kentucky

Jon Hood said he has some John Robic and John Calipari in his coaching game. He took a page out of the ole Kentucky playbook to help La Familia take Game 1 of its three-game series against The Ville in The Basketball Tournament. After blowing a double-digit lead down the stretch, the group of Kentucky alums managed to pull out a 72-68 victory on Saturday in Memorial Coliseum. The Ville missed a couple of shots that would have won them the game through the Elam Ending, opening up the door for La Familia to thwart the Louisville alum’s last-ditch effort. With the target score set at 71, La Familia was up 70-68 with the ball under its own basket. Hood, in his head coaching debut, drew up a perfect baseline out-of-bounds play that saw Kahlil Whitney find a wide-open Darryl Morsel for an emphatic dunk that sent the Big Blue Nation into a frenzy. “It was a great call,” DeAndre Liggins said in the postgame press conference. “Great play, great call,” Andrew Harrison added. La Familia is now one more win away from advancing to the knockout round. Afterward, Hood was asked about that play call and what he saw from his perspective on the bench. Turns out, it’s a play he used to run during his playing days at Kentucky (2009-14) when Calipari was dominating the college basketball scene. Hood even used it while serving as an assistant coach at the Division II level. It’s a BLOB play with multiple options — The Ville just forgot to defend the first one, and it cost them a 1-0 lead in the series. “I’ve come across that one, and we ran it when I was here at Kentucky,” Hood explained. “We had it in the playbook for situations similar like that. We ran it at Missouri Western. It’s three different options, and the first one happened to be open. So I told Khalil, if there’s something cheap and easy, and you have it here, make sure the ball gets in. We’re not gonna turn the ball over. There’s a bunch of action coming behind it. “Guys executed really well.” Hood admitted he made some coaching mistakes along the way — it’s his first game as a head coach, so we’ll cut him some slack — but he credited his guys for making up for them. That’ll all be addressed in the film room ahead of Game 2 on Monday night at Freedom Hall. Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.